The Fondue Conspiracy By Robert Smith - 1904 Words

I recently listened to a podcast called â€Å"The Fondue Conspiracy†. In this podcast, Robert Smith tells the story of how his curiosity about the origins of fondue led him to find out about the Swiss Cheese Union, how it formed, and this formed a cartel and led to the creation and popularization of fondue (Smith). Smith recounts meeting one of the rejected cheese makers, the â€Å"cheese rebel,† who wanted to join the Swiss Cheese Union and discusses the formation of the cartel and how they used strategic interdependence to benefit themselves during a time of surplus (Smith). Fondue was popularized to sell a large amount of cheese to counteract the surplus (Smith). The Swiss Government was trying to promote economy-wide stability by giving the business subsidies to help with their surplus issue (Smith). Agricultural subsidies and corruptions in the oligopoly of the swiss cheese union caused the demise of the swiss cheese union (Smith). Within â€Å"The Fondue Conspira cy,† Smith discusses how the Swiss Cheese Union worked as an oligopoly to promote their agenda (Smith). Had I not taken microeconomics, I would not have known what an oligopoly was. Another topic discussed in the podcast was the economic and political functions of government, specifically subsidies. I would not have understood what a subsidy if I had not taken microeconomics. The purpose of this paper is to explain oligopolies and the economic and political functions of government because they helped me understand â€Å"The